Department of Education Press Release: Historic Investment: $17.4 Million in Grants Available to Help Native Youth

Support Aimed at Helping Native Students Become College-, Career-Ready

The U.S. Department of Education today announced it is more than tripling – from $5.3 million to $17.4 million – the availability of funding for grants to help Native American youth become college- and career-ready.

In a Federal Register notice, the Department said it expects to make approximately 19 demonstration awards ranging from $500,000 to $1 million to tribal communities before Sept. 30.

“In too many places across Indian Country, Native youth do not receive adequate resources to help prepare them for success in school or after graduation,” said Acting U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. “The Native Youth Community Projects are an investment in bringing tribal communities together to change that reality, and dramatically transform the opportunities for Native youth. When tribal communities join together around shared goals for Native youth, we will see locally driven solutions coming from leaders who work most closely with students and are best-positioned to lead change.”

William Mendoza, executive director of the White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education, said, “These resources are desperately needed in tribal communities and are rooted in the value of tribally driven partnerships and strategies as a foundation to addressing the challenges Native youth face.”

Today’s announcement builds on the NYCP grants awarded last year to a dozen recipients in nine states that impacted over 30 tribes and involved more than 48 schools. The NYCP program is based on significant consultation with tribal communities and recognizes that these communities can best:

· Identify key barriers to and opportunities for improving educational and life outcomes for Native youth, and

· Develop and implement locally produced strategies designed to address those barriers.

Each grant will support a coordinated, focused approach chosen by a community partnership that includes a tribe, local schools and other optional service providers or organizations.

For example, the program allows tribes to identify ways to achieve college and career readiness specific to their own populations – which could include any number of approaches, such as early learning, language immersion or mental health services. Communities can tailor strategies to address barriers to success for students in college-and-career readiness. The success of these projects will guide the work of future practices that improve the educational opportunities and achievement of preschool, elementary and secondary Indian students.

· Provide $350 million for Preschool Development Grants – an increase of $100 million over fiscal year 2016 – to help develop and expand high-quality preschool programs in targeted communities, including planning grants to tribal governments.

· Help nearly 470,000 Native students with increased support for Title I programs serving low-income schools with funding necessary to provide high-need students access to an excellent education. The proposal seeks $15.4 billion – a $450 million increase – for all Title I efforts.

In addition, Acting Secretary King will be visiting the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota in the coming months to listen to the needs of tribal officials and share information on the efforts by the Administration to help Native youth and adults.